Study of Growth Hormone Response to Clonidine Stimulation in Short Stature with Growth Hormone Deficiency (GHD)

Background and Objective: Short stature is a condition when a person height is less two or more (standard deviations) (SD) than average height for persons of the same gender and chronologic age. There are different causations of "short stature" which extent from familial (genetic), "endocrine disorders, and chronic illnesses to idiopathic. Detecting and tending of curative disorders such anemia, nourished, disturbance of endocrine glands like hypothyroidism and shortage of growth hormone can cause attainability of predicted height. This study aimed to detect reasons of "short stature" in children and teenagers and to estimate the clonidine effectiveness on growth hormone level. Patients and Methods: In this study, 50 children and adolescent (1-18 years old) with symptoms of short stature where attended Al-Batool Teaching Obstetric Hospital at the period from March to September 2016, heights of all patients were estimated, growth hormone levels were evaluated before and after clonidine therapy using ELISA technique. Results: this study showed that all patients had height lower than normal (2 standard deviation below the mean). Growth hormone deficiency) was the main cause of "short stature" (44, 88 %) and there was significant differences in growth hormone level before and after clonidine intake (p ˂ 0.00). Conclusions: (Growth hormone deficiency) was the major cause of "short stature". Clonidine was effective therapy in stimulation and support the level of growth hormone.